UFC women’s strawweight Zhang Weili picks up heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou

Former champion Zhang exhibited impressive strength to lift Ngannou, who currently weighs 293lbs

UFC women’s strawweight Zhang Weili exhibited impressive strength to lift heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou this week.

Zhang, a former champion at 115lbs, will challenge reigning title holder Carla Esparza on Saturday 12 November, in the co-main event of UFC 281.

While training for that bout, the Chinese fighter spent time with Ngannou, who has been recovering from injury since retaining the UFC heavyweight title in January.

Ahead of that defence against Ciryl Gane, Ngannou weighed in at 257lbs, and in a video posted on the French-Cameronian’s Twitter page on Thursday (3 November), Zhang can be seen lifting Ngannou.

And Ngannou said he currently weighs almost 40lbs more than he did ahead of his last fight.

“I can’t believe that @zhangweilimma just picked me up like I wasn’t 293lbs,” the 36-year-old wrote alongside the video clip.

“I didn’t want her to do it, I was scared of her hurting her back and was trying to explain this to her... then found myself suddenly up in the air. Her strength ratio is through the roof.”

Zhang, 33, has a professional MMA record of 22-3. She won the UFC strawweight title in 2019, knocking out Jessica Andrade in the first round in Shenzhen, China.

After retaining the title with a narrow decision against former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Zhang lost the belt to Rose Namajunas in April 2021.

Following that knockout defeat, Zhang lost to Namajunas again last November in a close contest. The 33-year-old got back to winning ways last time out, however, knocking out Jedrzejczyk with a spinning back fist in the pair’s rematch this June.